She said home-based health care would work better if there were more medical professionals available for home care, such as doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other caregivers.

The Nowaks said they agree with this thinking, as getting out of their house can be problematic, due to Stan’s walking limitations.

Donato concurred that community supports need to be augmented to move more patients out of hospital and into their homes.

"Some of them do belong in a hospital, but most of the time, if they can be in assisted-living facilities or some other alternate level of care ... you need to have the community resources there to enable that," Donato said.